Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/204

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
200
MILITARY ROADS

that Indian summer, there was a sane consciousness of preparedness and power which was all but victory. The Indians were quick to recognize and describe, in their figurative way, the two chief characteristics of Wayne as a frontier commander—he was both the "Black Snake" and the "Whirlwind." When in motion, he swept through the forests like a cyclone; the record of no pioneer army in America equals the marching records of Wayne's Legion It was a standing order that every march should be under high pressure and that no break or interruption should in any case delay the movement of the main body a single moment. This impressed the savages tremendously; they had known no such army as this—which advanced into their country almost as fast as others had run out of it. Thus they talked of the "Whirlwind" around their northern fires. Wayne, too, was a "Black Snake." He was as cunning as he was impetuous. As will be seen, he built roads he never traversed, doubled his track, and over and again completely outwitted the astonished Indian spies that attempted, with sharp eyes in